tal condition of the age, and the
state of science, we shall find no difficulty in conceiving the scorn
and incredulity with which the theory of Columbus was received. We shall
not wonder that he was regarded as a madman or as a fool; we are not
surprised to remember that he encountered repulse upon repulse, as he
journeyed wearily from court to court, and pleaded in vain for aid to
the sovereigns of Europe and wise men of the cloister. But the marvel is
that when gate after gate was closed against him, when all ears were
deaf to his patient importunities, when day by day the opposition to his
views increased, when, weary and foot-sore, he was forced to beg a
morsel of bread and a cup of water for his fainting and famished boy, at
the door of a Spanish convent, his reason did not give way, and his
great heart did not break beneath its weight of disappointment.

But his soul was then as firm and steadfast as when, launched in his
frail caravel upon the ocean, he pursued day after day, and night after
night, amidst a discontented, murmuring, and mutinous crew, his westward
path over the trackless waters. We can conceive of his previous sorrows,
but what imagination can form an adequate conception of his hopefulness
and gratitude when the tokens of the neighborhood of land first greeted
his senses; of his high enthusiasm when the shore was discovered; of his
noble rapture when the keel of his bark grounded on the shore of San
Salvador, and he planted the royal standard in the soil, the Viceroy and
High Admiral of Spain in the New World! No matter what chanced
thereafter, a king's favor or a king's displeasure, royal largesses or
royal chains,--that moment of noble exultation was worth a long lifetime
of trials. Such were our thoughts before the cathedral altar, gazing on
his consecrated tomb, and thus suggestive will the visitor be sure to
find this memorial of the great captain amid its sombre
surroundings.[24]

It will be remembered that Columbus died in Valladolid, in 1506. In 1513
his remains were transferred to Seville, preparatory to their being
sent, as desired in his will, to St. Domingo. When that island was ceded
to France, the remains were delivered to the Spaniards. This was in
1796, one hundred and three years after they had been placed there; they
were then brought with great pomp to Havana, in a national ship, and
were deposited in the cathedral in the presence of all the high
authorities. The church itself